Digging Together

Community Archaeology: Practice and Potential

1.15pm, Cheryl LaRoche(U of Maryland) “The Power of Community: Archaeology, the Black Church, and the Landscape.”

For more than ten years, my work with the public has stood on four
pillars: archaeology, the black community, the black church and the
landscape. Using several sites to examine the interactions between the
archaeological community, and the public, my talk will highlight the
power of communities in action in both contemporary and pre-civil war
historic contexts.

This talk will discuss the origin and trajectory of the multiyear
collaboration between the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and the
Anthropology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Since
2003, this project in southeastern Connecticut has provided eight
summer archaeological field courses for undergraduates, graduate
students, and Native American community members that have focused on
recovering new dimensions of Eastern Pequot reservation life from the
late 17th century into the 20th century. The
objectives have been to train students in archaeological techniques, the
study of colonialism and its legacies, and collaborative methodologies
while simultaneously orienting learning and research outcomes to benefit
the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation’s efforts at historic and cultural
preservation and community education.

3.15pm, Whitney Battle-Baptiste(U Mass Amherst) “An
Archaeology for the Living: Bringing the Past into the Present Through
Dialogue, Collaboration, and Real Exchange.”

In recent times historical archaeologists have used terms such as,
“engaged” and “community-based,” in descriptions of their archaeological
projects. However, as we move closer to an archaeology that transcends
borders and boundaries, we have to broaden our understanding of who and
what community is and what our role as scholar contributors are. I will
highlight some of my past experiences and reveal some current challenges
in the shaping of an interpretive message at the W E B Du Bois National
Historic Site in Great Barrington, MA.

4.00pm, discussion, followed by a reception and informal conversation

Background to the Beman Triangle:

This public symposium takes place to highlight the abilities and
issues of community archaeology as we begin a project on the Wesleyan
campus. this project
In 1830 the first AME Zion Church on Cross Street, Middletown,
was constructed, one of the first in the country, built by a
congregation who had been meeting for seven years. With the new church
came a pastor; Jehiel Beman, a local man (from Colchester, CT). Jehiel’s
father, Ceasar, had been freed for taking part in the Revolutionary War
in place of his white master. Jehiel’s sons were to go on to further
the work of the Church, and of the African American community in
Middletown.
Leverett C. Beman (1810-1883), the eldest son, was a trained
shoemaker and had kept a shop with his father on Williams Street. In
1843, Leverett bought a house on the corner of Cross and Vine Streets
(around the spot where Neon Deli now stands), commissioning a survey in
1847 of what we now call the “Beman Triangle”; land between Vine, Cross,
and Knowles Streets. Members of the AME Zion Church began to populate
other houses on the land. Within the next forty years, the African
Americans living here became a stable community, with most managing to
pay off their mortgages. They, and the Church, were active in the
Underground Railroad. Three men from the neighborhood served in the
Civil War. By the turn of the twentieth century the neighborhood was
changing, and African Americans were moving out of Middletown in the
face of changing employment opportunities offered in the industrializing
city. But the Triangle retained its centrality to the AME Zion
community with the re-location of the church itself from the top of
Cross Street, where the Exley Science Center now stands, to the spot in
which – until three years ago – continued to be their place of worship.
The Beman Triangle then, is a site which shows the changing nature of
the African American community in Middletown, tied together by the
centrality of the AME Zion Church. Today the site is on the State
Register of Historic Places, to recognize the importance of the former
residents of the Beman Triangle in their ability to build community and
prosperity, and their participation in the Underground Railroad and the
Civil War. The community archaeology project planned at the site
continues from some initial excavations which have demonstrated the
potential of archaeology to bring to light the artifacts of daily life
for former Beman Triangle residents. Through this work, we hope to bring
together the Wesleyan, AME Zion, and wider Middletown community to
explore and remember the history of life at the site. Historical
archaeologists in similar contexts have shown that it is possible
through examining materials – such as table wares, food containers, and
knick-knacks – in use by the Beman community, that we will be able to
learn more about the realities of the everyday social life of the
residents, something it is almost impossible to glean from the limited
historical records available. We also hope to raise the profile of the
site and to work towards placing it on the National Register of Historic
Places. In beginning to present the ways in which community archaeology
projects have faced challenges, but have come to be deeply engaged with
various social groups and individuals, this public archaeology
symposium offers the chance for the wider Wesleyan and Middletown
communities to come together to learn about the potential of this
archaeology project. Beginning in April we will begin excavations on the
Beman Triangle, involving Wesleyan students and the wider AME Zion and
Middletown community, with research directions being shaped by the
interests of all participants.

Sponsored by:

Academic Affairs
African American Studies
Archaeology Program
Office for Diversity
Service Learning Center